So you’ve decided to go to Europe hey? Perhaps it’s your first time embarking on such an ambitious trip, or maybe you’re a seasoned backpacker who already knows their way around. If you’re really lucky you’re visiting a friend who lives there and has a couch for you to surf on. Whatever your situation, you’ll undoubtedly be traveling by train at some point during your journey, so here are a few tips and tricks that could prove invaluable to your time away.
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Going to Europe is a life-long dream for many, including my partner and I. We recently returned from an 18 day stint in which we traveled through Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Italy, and Switzerland. Yes, it was a jam packed 18 days! With a ton of time spent traveling by train. For the most part our experience with the trains in Europe was positive, however, we learned through experience things that will make any future trips even smoother.
It goes without saying, but Europe is a big place! It’s impossible to explore all of it in one go, but the train systems there make it easier. Don’t feel like you have to do everything in one trip, because you can’t. The best thing to do is to narrow your itinerary to 1-3 countries so that you can experience them more fully and appreciate all that they have to offer.
Image Right: Snapshot of Cologne, Germany
The “DB” shown on the left stands for “Deutsche Bahn” which is Germany’s national railway company.
- Buy a EuRail Pass
- Rail Pass Types
- Book your tickets in advance
- Types of Trains
- Consider taking a Coach Bus
- While at a Train Station
- While on a Train
- Final Thoughts
Buy a EuRail Pass
If you don’t know what this is head to the Eurail website here and read all about it. Getting one of their pass options will save you $$$ in the long run, especially if you’re looking to explore multiple countries. To begin, you’ll want to purchase your pass through a secondary site/app such as Rail Europe, then afterwards you can load your pass onto your Eurail account. We bought ours through Rail Europe which was great because at the time they had a promotional sale! Those happen from time to time, so keep a look out.
Both Rail Europe and Eurail have user friendly websites and apps so that you can access them while on the go.
Fun Fact: There’s a built in discount on rail passes for youth aged 0-25 as well as for seniors aged 60+, it’s nice to take advantage of if you can. The kind of pass you purchase is customizable; certain passes only cover journeys within 1 single country, then there are others that cover a single region (small grouping of countries), or the most popular choice of all which is a pass that includes all of Europe (33 European Countries).
One thing to remember with your pass is that you’ll still need to pay an additional reservation fee for certain trips, often ones that cover greater distances or are crossing borders. This is due to the train systems themselves requiring all traveling passengers to reserve their seat for certain journeys. On the one hand it’s a relief to have your seat reserved, knowing you’ll have a nice spot for your travel duration. On the other hand, the added reservation fee can cut into your travel budget considerably, especially if you are booking your seats last minute.
Rail Pass Types
The two main types of passes to choose from are “Eurail Global Mobile Pass Continuous” or the “Eurail Global Mobile Pass Flex“. The Continuous pass option gives you lots of flexibility to travel as much as you like within longer increments starting at 15 days, 22 days, 1 month, 2 months, or 3 months. The price of course increases with each increment, and is an attractive choice for those needing to travel extensively during their trip, especially if it’s for work. While it’s a tempting option, it is more expensive than the alternative.
We were happy with the Flex pass option as it also provides ample flexibility, just a little differently. With this pass you get to travel as much as you want within a certain amount of travel days that you can use whenever you like within a 1 month period. So, you have a 4 day, 5 day, 7 day, 10 day, or 15 days option with the price increasing accordingly. This pass is more affordable though it requires more strategizing on the travelers part. A Flex pass is undeniably the economical, practical, yet still flexible choice; the travel days don’t need to be spent all at once, you’re meant to space them out between destinations which will maximize your time away.
Let’s compare and contrast everything I just blabbed about:
| Eurail Global Mobile Pass Continuous | Eurail Global Mobile Pass Flex |
| – Tons of flexibility | – Lots of flexibility |
| – Flexibility restricted to consecutive days of travel (15 days, 22 days, 1 month, 2 months, or 3 months) | – Flexibility restricted to amount of days included on pass (4 days, 5 days, 7 days, 10 days, or 15 days) used anytime within a 30 day period |
| – Has 1st and 2nd class options | – Has 1st and 2nd class options |
| – More expensive than the Flex pass | – Less expensive than the Continuous pass |
| – Pass must be activated in order to legally travel via train | – Pass must be activated and a travel day must be spent in order to legally travel via train. |
| – Journeys can be planned, tracked, and reservations booked via the Eurail app | – Journeys can be planned, tracked, and reservations booked via the Eurail app |
Book your tickets in advance
If you take anything away from this blog post, let it be this simple life hack. Planning and booking long-haul trips well in advance will save you A LOT of your traveling budget, as well as reduce unwanted stress. You could save many hundreds of dollars simply by booking in advance. And when I say in advance I don’t mean the day before, I’m talking 1-3 months in advance of your desired travel date. If you’re like me, then planning this far ahead of time might sound confining and like too much commitment, but if you can bring yourself to do it I promise you won’t live to regret it!
The most convenient train journeys (high-speed), are much more expensive when booked last minute. You can save yourself both financial stress and valuable time by booking these types of tickets far in advance.
When it came to train travel, my partner and I ended up doing a lot of our booking 1-2 days before, which landed us in a tight spot. We could either spend anywhere between $40-$350CAD per ticket (depending on the specific trip), or we could utilize one of our 5 travel days on our Eurail Pass. Yeah, seems like a no-brainer! However, when you have a limited amount of travel days to use like we did, you must be strategic and intentional when using them, so at times it felt conflicting. If we had planned ahead and reserved our seats well in advance, it’s likely that the cost would’ve been a fraction of what last-minute prices were showing.
A gorgeous city just south of Luxembourg: Nancy, France
Thankfully our trip worked out for the best, and we have no regrets. We managed to find different options that allowed for more flexibility, and we were able to embrace some healthy spontaneity. However, booking last minute also kept us traveling for longer periods of time and gave us considerable stress. So, don’t be like us. Book in ADVANCE.
Types of Trains
There are different types of trains that you can hop on while crossing the beautiful continent of Europe. The most common of which being regular metro, then intercity trains that connect you between cities, and lastly there are the high-speed ones that cover greater distances and are the most convenient in terms of travel time. TGV, for example, are high speed trains in France, and they are a dream in comparison to taking Intercity trains that often travel long distances, but at slower speeds and with more connections along the way.
In addition to the many trains you may take throughout your trip, you may also find yourself hopping onto a tram. Tram systems run through most if not all European countries, and they’re awesome. This mode of transport is meant for in-town traveling, and helps make sight-seeing more efficient by cutting down the miles you have to walk.
You can usually buy tram tickets at regular train stations, or sometimes purchase the ticket on board the tram itself.
Unlike trams, most trains have 1st and 2nd class seating options available. You can upgrade to 1st class for an added fee if you like, but we found that it’s pretty much never worth it unless you’re desperate for somewhere to charge your phone or some other unique situation presents itself. Second class seating is comfortable and some trains do have charging ports for both 1st and 2nd class, so I’ll let you decide if the upgrade’s necessary.
You’ll notice trains like ICE, TER, INOUI, ZOU!, and more along your way, and they each have their own pros and cons. For instance, ICE (Inter-City Express) trains are found in Germany and are quite nice! They are Germany’s version of a “Shinkansen” as seen in Japan, and are the fastest way to get from city to city within Germany. These trains don’t always require a reservation, but make sure to double check for your specific journey ahead of time if you can, it might save you a headache. ZOU! is part of TER in the south of France, and can often be a more affordable option than other TER trains in the region.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
I highly recommend looking up these train companies via the links provided above and learning the basics of how they operate in their respective countries. Even if you glance at them briefly it will help you along your adventure substantially. Just being able to recognize the name of a train company will feel like seeing a familiar face when exploring in a land of unknowns.
Additionally, my partner and I were hoping to experience a night train during our travels, but we found that sleeper trains are not very common in Europe. Maybe it was because of the countries we happened to be traveling in, but we didn’t notice any options for long-haul trains that would take you through the night to your next destination. The longest journey we took on a single train before having to make a connection was about 4 hours. So, if you have daydreams of falling asleep in one country and waking up in another, you’ll need to put time into researching the few options, and expect a higher cost.
Consider taking a Coach Bus
This travel option REALLY comes in handy! Especially if you’ve decided to go with a “Flex” rail pass like we did. Utilizing the many available coach bus companies in Europe creates even more flexibility for your trip, and helps to spread out your travel days if you’re running low.
Taking a bus takes longer, but you’re still getting to the same destination while spending way less on tickets. The two most popular and reliable choices that we tried are FlixBus and BlaBlaCar. Both companies provided great service in our experience, and were life savers in terms of conserving our travel days. You’ll have the option with either bus service to reserve your seats ahead of time for an added fee, or to be randomly assigned your seat for no extra charge. Booking tickets via their online sites or mobile apps is easy and the seats are comfortable!
Paris, France
In our experience, there was no washroom available on our BlaBlaCar ride, but there was a very tiny washroom on the Flixbus journey we took prior. It may just depend on which route you’re on, but don’t count on there being a washroom onboard. Any and all amenities available on board the bus will be shown when purchasing your ticket online.
Flixbus is the largest bus company in Europe, providing an impressive amount of service across the continent. A bonus to Flixbus is that they also operate Flixtrains. My partner and I caught one from Basel, Switzerland to Frankfurt, Germany and it was more affordable than taking a regular train. It had washrooms on board, ample storage space above passenger seating, but no place to plug in devices. A very fair trade-off for the savings in price!
Pro Tip: Flixtrains don’t always show up as an option when searching on the eurail app, so make sure to search via the Flixbus website before settling for a more expensive ticket elsewhere.
While at a Train Station
When you arrive at the station, keep a close eye on the screens that notify which platform your train will be arriving at. In rare situations, the assigned platform may be switched due to unforeseen circumstances, or your train may be running late. Whatever you do, don’t panic. The worst that could happen is you catch a later train headed in the same direction.
If you need to purchase your train ticket on the go you can use a ticket machine at the station. The ticket machines thankfully have several language options, so if you’re a little rusty with the local language you can have a sigh of relief. We found that some machines had more options than others, with the basic languages offered consistently being German, French, English, and Spanish.
Before boarding your train, it is polite and an expected form of etiquette to first stand aside and allow current passengers to disembark.
Marseille, France
If you need to use the washroom before your trip, try to wait until you’ve boarded the train. I suggest this because while there are facilities at train stations, they almost always cost a small fee (1-3euro). While not exorbitant, every little bit counts. The toilets on the trains are included in the cost of your ticket, so you may as well wait if you’re able.
Be careful of pick-pockets while waiting for connections at busy train stations. We didn’t have any issues, but we were very wary of our surroundings just in case. At larger hubs like the Marseille St Charles station you’ll especially want to keep your valuables close and avoid speaking with anyone who may be trying to scam you. Generally, however, most people at train stations are just trying to get from point A to point B, so be careful but there’s no need to be paranoid.
Storytime…
My partner and I had planned on taking a smooth train journey from Marseille St Charles to Milano Centrale, we had it perfectly laid out and were happy with our clean itinerary. However, as fate would have it there was a rail strike happening in Italy on that particular day, so we ended up getting stranded for ~7hours in a place called Ventimiglia on the northern coast of Italy. At first we were frustrated, but then we realized that we were stranded in a really beautiful place, so we made the best of it. The greatest part of all was that we got to go swimming in the Ligurian Sea! It was SO lovely, and a true highlight of our trip. We made sweet lemonade from lemons, and then continued to Milan later that same evening.
Cannes, France
While on a Train
Congrats on boarding your train, you probably feel relieved to have found your seat and can now gaze out the window with daydreams of your next destination dancing across your mind. But before you totally check out, make sure to have your ticket (digital or physical) at the ready in case a staff member requests proof of purchase.
Occasionally you may experience train journeys in which no body checks for tickets, but this is rare. To be on the safe side try to have your passport secure yet easily accessible, and be familiar with how to bring up your eurail pass code on the app. Some trains going further distances will have a small cafe on board. You pay for the convenience, but it’s still pretty cool.
Alternatively, and for most train journeys that last a substantial amount of time, it’s nice to grab a baked good or snack of choice from a local grocery store or bakery before heading out. You’ll save $$ this way and avoid being hangry along your adventure ^_^
Final Thoughts
As the cliche goes; work smarter not harder! It really pays off to be prepared before going on your trip. The novelty of scrambling along the way quickly loses it’s charm, and spending on impulse or desperation can drain your wallet.
When it comes to navigating the trains in Europe, start by getting a rail pass, book well in advance to save on cost, and don’t be afraid to improvise when needed. You never know what the day will bring, but the extensive European train network will get you there one way or another. The best way to avoid delays and unexpected costs is to lookout for notifications of rail strikes on your eurail app, and to book as far in advance as you can. You’re also more likely to get a better deal on a rail pass this way too!
Milan, Italy
A lot of the specifics can be determined and brain stormed on the eurail app/website before and during your trip. Eurail makes it easy to plan ahead as well as make informed last minute changes when needed. It connects you to a broad scope of options in terms of speed and affordability, so it’s a good idea to get familiar with the app before beginning your epic journey. You can save trips on your eurail account along the way and after returning home be able to reflect on all the places you went while exploring Europe via rail.
Additionally, Trainline is a great app for looking up train departures and schedules if you’d like a secondary source.
Bus companies like Flixbus and BlaBlaCar cast a wider net in terms of travel options that help conserve travel days on your rail pass, and are a reliable choice for shorter journeys in particular. There’s lots of options out there to help you along your grand adventure, I hope this post has helped you discover a few of them! Safe travels to you.
Lake Como, Italy
Thoughts to Writings 